Digital Commons Network^™

Perfluorinated Carbon Chain Length Drives Uptake Of Diverse Per- And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances In Field-Deployed Passive Samplers, Matthew Dunn, Jitka Becanova, Simon Vojta, Heidi Pickard, Rainer Lohmann

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of compounds of high concern due to their ubiquity, persistence, and adverse health impacts. With a diversity of chemical structures and properties, detection tools are needed to capture as many PFAS as possible. In this study, a microporous polyethylene tube (MPT) passive sampler was calibrated for 25 target compounds, 8 suspect PFAS, and extractable organofluorine (EOF) during 1–2 week deployments in groundwater, freshwater river, and estuary contaminated by aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF). Targeted analysis, suspect screening, and EOF were performed on passive and grab samples to derive sampling rates, R_s. …

Characterization Of The Potential Long-Term Impact From Sedimentary Pfas At A Historically Contaminated Textile Waste Site, Jarod Snook, Jitka Becanova, Simon Vojta, Rainer Lohmann

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are pervasive pollutants at historically contaminated sites throughout the United States and beyond. Two such sites in Rhode Island, USA, are textile-mill-associated waste retention ponds known to introduce PFAS contamination to the adjacent river, estuary, and eventually the Atlantic Ocean. Here, we thoroughly investigated the retention ponds as a long-term source of PFAS via water passive sampling, sediment coring, and laboratory-derived partitioning coefficients, K_d, with field sediment and water. Additional studies were performed to assess the mobility and estimate the mass fluxes of PFAS from sediment to water. Retention pond 1 was more …

Final Cruise Report: Tn401, Roxanne A. Beinart, Shawn Arellano, Craig Young

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Advances In Ocean Mapping And Nautical Cartography, Giuseppe Masetti, Ian Church, Anand Hiroji, Ove Andersen

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

The Special Issue of Geomatics on "Advances in Ocean Mapping and Nautical Cartography" addresses emerging methodologies, technologies, and applications in ocean mapping. This collection includes studies on the development of high-resolution seabed mapping techniques, innovative data processing for marine cartography, and advancements in hydrographic surveying. It highlights the importance of integrating geospatial data from sources such as remote sensing, autonomous underwater vehicles, and satellite-based observations. Additionally, articles discuss challenges and strategies for ensuring data accuracy and accessibility, reflecting a growing interest in sustainable marine resource management and navigation safety enhancements.

Western Gulf Of Maine Acoustic Assessment Reference Sites, Larry G. Ward, Rachel C. Morrison, Michael Bogonko

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

Four “reference sites” were established in 2023 in the Western Gulf of Maine (WGOM) for the specific purpose of testing and evaluating acoustic systems (i.e., sub-bottom seismic profilers) by the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping and Joint Hydrographic Center (CCOM/JHC). Determination of the reference sites was guided by a detailed understanding of the surficial geology and shallow subsurface stratigraphy based on an extensive database developed over several decades by UNH. The reference sites include a high-energy channel deposit (Portsmouth Harbor Entrance: PHE), a large sand shoal (Northern Sand Body: NSB), a paleodelta (Merrimack Paleodelta: …

Unh/Noaa Joint Hydrographic Center 2025 Performance And Progress Report Executive Summary, Larry A. Mayer

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

No abstract provided.

Unh/Noaa Joint Hydrographic Center 2025 Performance And Progress Report Executive Summary, Larry A. Mayer

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

Reporting Period: 01/01/2025–12/31/2025

From The Archives: Leadership And The Professional Ethic

Journal of the American College of Dentists

Each issue of the Journal of the American College of Dentists (JACD) features an archival article selected for its continued relevance to contemporary issues in dentistry. This article provides historical context and enduring insights that inform current discussions in the profession.

The Dark Side Of Leadership: Finding Where You Belong, Bo Yu Dds, Phd, Steven Milgazo Ba, Ms, Elizabeth O. Carr Dha, Facd (Hon), Sreenivas Koka Dds, Ms, Phd, Mba, Mas, Facd

Journal of the American College of Dentists

Leadership—whether as a parent, healthcare provider, soldier, or business executive—requires intentional effort to master its art and science. Just as we would not expect a physician or a soldier to learn their craft entirely “on the job,” we should not expect leaders to develop their leadership skills the same way. Society demands years of preparation for physicians and soldiers before they assume their professional responsibilities. However, when it comes to leadership, we often accept that individuals take on leadership roles with neither formal leadership training nor the “education of experience,” despite the profound and life-changing consequences of good and bad …

Ethical Frontiers In Dentistry: Navigating Artificial And Augmented Intelligence, Robert A. Faiella Dmd, Mmsc., Mba

Journal of the American College of Dentists

The dental profession is continually evolving, and the emergence of artificial and augmented intelligence presents both transformative opportunities and critical challenges. Artificial intelligence generates automated outputs, and augmented intelligence synergistically integrates human expertise with machine-derived insights to enhance clinical judgment and decision-making. The terms will be used interchangeably here, abbreviated as AI.

The Ethical Dilemma Of Social Media, Janet H. Southerland

Journal of the American College of Dentists

Technology and digital communication have radically altered how we communicate and interact. As a consequence, the ethical use and application of technology within the profession, particularly the utilization of social media, is essential to preserving and upholding the tenets of professional conduct across dentistry.

From The Archives: Ethical Problems In Dental Practice

Journal of the American College of Dentists

Each issue of the Journal of the American College of Dentists (JACD) features an archival article selected for its continued relevance to contemporary issues in dentistry. This article provides historical context and enduring insights that inform current discussions in the profession.

J Am Coll Dent 2025 91 4

Journal of the American College of Dentists

The Journal of the American College of Dentists (JACD) publishes scholarly articles, editorials, essays, and reflections addressing the ethical, professional, and social dimensions of dentistry. The Journal serves as a forum for advancing ethics, professionalism, leadership, and excellence within the dental community. By fostering dialogue across disciplines and perspectives, JACD provides readers with insights that encourage ethical, professional practice, lifelong learning, and service to the public, reinforcing dentistry’s commitment to advancing oral healthcare and the common good.

Breaking Down The Silos: Dentistry’S Ethical Responsibility As A Partner In Healthcare, Toni M. Roucka Rn, Dds, Ma, Facd, Scott Tomar Dmd, Drph, Facd

Journal of the American College of Dentists

The Ethics Summit, Breaking Down the Silos: Dentistry’s Ethical Responsibility as a Partner in Healthcare, was held on September 12-13, 2024, in Rockville, Maryland. Sponsored by the American College of Dentists Foundation (ACDF) and the Santa Fe Group (SFG), this issue of the JACD is dedicated to the proceedings of that important event.

The Role Of Research In Fostering Dentistry’S Partnership In Healthcare, Scott Tomar Dmd, Drph, Facd

Journal of the American College of Dentists

In 2000, the landmark report Oral Health in America: A Report of the Surgeon General highlighted the magnitude of oral health disparities in the country and emphasized the importance of oral health for overall well-being, calling for a health infrastructure that effectively integrates oral health into overall health. More than two decades later, dental and oral diseases remain prevalent among parts of the American population, key strategies for disease prevention are under attack, and dentistry remains largely isolated from the rest of the US healthcare system. While many factors need to be addressed to change that status, it is widely …

From The Archives: Health Service And The Public

Journal of the American College of Dentists

Each issue of the Journal of the American College of Dentists (JACD) features an archival article selected for its continued relevance to contemporary issues in dentistry. This article provides historical context and enduring insights that inform current discussions in the profession.

Reflector Magazine, Georgia Southern University

Reflector Magazine

• The Archive
• Student Fashion
• Art as Rebellion
• Latin Rhythm and Dance
• Blackmania
• Theatre
• Lifelong Gap Year
• Lowdown Band
• Creating a Community
• Lifelong Learner
• Feeding the Community

No Neutral Ground: Sports Political Ideology In The 1936 Olympic Games, Lea Zeitler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

By using literary and cinematic narratives to explore changing cultural and ideological positions, my thesis demonstrates how the 1936 Berlin Olympics became a defining event of the intersection of sports and politics. Through analyzing Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia, Richard Mandell’s The Nazi Olympics, and Elise Hooper’s Fast Girls, I show how distinct historical circumstances inform understandings of race, gender, and nationalism. The Berlin Games, used by the Third Reich as a platform for Nazi propaganda, stand as an example of how international sporting events become battlegrounds for ideological struggles and political messaging. This thesis argues that these narratives are not just …

Advances In General Relativistic Simulations Of Neutron Stars, Ananya Adhikari

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Increasingly improving gravitational wave (GW) detectors with progressively lower signal-to-noise ratios will provide GW signal data with higher accuracy. They will also detect GW signals from compact body coalescence (CBC) events, such as binary neutron star (BNS) mergers, more frequently. This, in turn, poses a two-fold challenge to the numerical relativity community: generating numerical relativity simulations with greater accuracy at greater speed and performing tailored simulations to investigate observed GW events post-fact. Towards addressing the first challenge, we present here a new hybrid spatial differentiation scheme that combines a discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method highly efficient at handling smooth fields with …

Essays On Entrepreneurial Funding In The Era Of Fintech Innovation, Robert S. Reardon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Equity crowdfunding introduces a contemporary framework for the longstanding practice of aggregating capital from diverse groups of investors, ranging from small individual contributors to large, accredited participants. Specialized digital platforms facilitate this capital assembly process by intermediating transactions between entrepreneurs seeking financing and investors, who receive financial securities in return for their contributions. This fundraising mechanism gained prominence in the United States following the implementation of Title III of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act in 2016, which established regulatory frameworks permitting companies to publicly solicit investments online from diverse investor pools.

While equity crowdfunding has expanded capital accessibility, …

Exploring A Modern Deep Learning Technique For Wetland Mapping And Monitoring Using Worldview-2 Satellite Products, Mizanur Rahman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Wetlands play a significant role in the world’s hydrology, climate, and biodiversity. Even with the benefits and values wetlands provide to the environment, they have been undergoing loss and degradation due to natural and anthropogenic processes. To protect wetlands from loss and degradation and to restore their function, it is essential to develop a sustainable wetland monitoring system. One of the key elements of a wetland monitoring system is wetland mapping. This dissertation research developed an object-based deep learning protocol for mapping heterogeneous wetlands with many communities from a high-resolution WV-2 satellite image. To test this developed protocol, an object-based …

Motherhood: An Orphan Of American Politics A Comparative Analysis Of State Actors As Institutions, Kristina Ramskyte-Juszczak

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The political geography of America is relatively unique in the world: the United States is a powerful and wealthy country, but also consists of sub-national actors that retain significant legal powers within their own borders. The political actors in America, at both this smaller level and at the larger Federal level, have uniquely strong institutional power to shape the social and civic life of their citizens. Despite their absolute significance to the survival of their societies, mothers and mothers’ rights have largely been ignored or taken second place to other political issues. As many countries in Europe and other regions …

Embodied Liminality: The Ritual-Drama Nexus In Pan-Tribal Native American Dance And Theatrical Performances, Oscar Pereira

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the intersection of ritual, drama, and liminality in pantribal Native American dance performances, emphasizing embodied liminality as a performative process shaping cultural continuity, identity transformation, and communal reinforcement.

Using an interdisciplinary methodology that integrates archival research, visual anthropology, and qualitative analysis, this study investigates three case studies: (1) the Ghost Dance movement as a liminal ritual of resistance and cultural revitalization; (2) pan-tribal powwows as sites of embodied liminality and cultural revitalization, and (3) contemporary Native American theater, analyzing theatrical plays through the lens of liminality, visual anthropology, theater and performance methodologies.

Examining embodied liminality in historical …

Groundwater Variability Under Climate Change: Influence Of Precipitation, Evapotranspiration And Sea Level Rise, Anushi Obeysekera

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Expected changes to climate, including longer and drier periods of drought, extreme rainfall events, increased temperatures, and sea level rise, are expected to significantly impact groundwater conditions in the surficial aquifer system, especially along coastlines. A coupled model approach was used linking an Evapotranspiration (ET)-Recharge model to SEAWAT to highlight groundwater variability across an area of interest. The ET-Recharge model is used to develop groundwater recharge and maximum potential groundwater ET based on rainfall and Reference ET scenarios. Groundwater recharge and maximum potential groundwater ET are then used as input into a SEAWAT model to assess changes in groundwater levels …

Mblac1 Knockout Mice: Behavioral Modeling Of A Novel Risk Factor In Alzheimer's Disease, Cara Melillo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) involves progressive cognitive decline, with mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, and copper (Cu) imbalance implicated in its pathogenesis. MBLAC1 has been identified as a risk factor for AD in individuals with comorbid cardiovascular disease (AD-CVD). Its C. elegans ortholog, swip-10, regulates Cu ion homeostasis and mitochondrial function. To investigate MBLAC1’s role, we examined behavioral phenotypes in Mblac1 knockout (KO) mice and tested the efficacy of the Cu chaperone elesclomol (ES). Male KO mice exhibited deficits in novel object recognition (NOR), which were rescued by ES treatment. Female KOs showed increased anxiety-like behavior in the Elevated Plus …

The Souls Of Black Ghosts: Centering Intergenerational Trauma Of Black Americans From Harriet Tubman To Beloved, Jasmine Mccray

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Intergenerational trauma is being debated and researched in fields such as neuroscience and sociology, and yet many question whether one can genuinely feel the negative effects of a lived experience from a distant ancestor. This project aims to raise awareness on the attempts at erasing Harriet Tubman’s heritage through scholarship on her disability, and to highlight the presence of intergenerational trauma (as defined by Dr. DeGruy’s observations in Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome) in Toni Morrison’s Beloved. I note the ripple effects of chattel slavery in the United States seen in the consciousness and unconsciousness of Black Americans within a …

Gendered Violence And Identities: Exploring The Role Of Violence Against And Abductions Of Women In Cracking India And Lajwanti, Erin Mammel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This article argues that representations of women’s bodies as symbols of honor during the partition of India and Pakistan in Bapsi Sidhwa’s Cracking India and Rajinder Singh Bedi’s Lajwanti frame violence against these bodies, and forced conversions and marriages, as forms of dishonor among religious rivals within split territories, which attempt to uphold men’s nationalistic identities. Many scholars, such as Rachna Mehra and Rituparna Roy, have studied the displacement of recovered and rehabilitated women in these texts. There has been less scholarship, however, that explores gendered forms of violence with Hindu nationalist notions of masculinity. Through the lens of postcolonial …

Experimental Characterization Of Power Generation Of A Small Wind Turbine With Variable Ducted Geometry, Robert S. Gaudreau

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Wind turbines provide renewable energy but must be installed at suitable locations to maximize power generation. Applying duct geometry to wind turbines can increase output power, allowing for the integration into urban applications where space is limited, and visual pollution must be minimized. Therefore, the objective was to determine the change in output power for a wind turbine with variable area ducting comprised of a converging inlet nozzle and a diverging outlet diffuser. Parametric studies of 3D-printed models were conducted in a low-speed wind tunnel at 5 m/s to determine the optimal duct angle and area ratio with the greatest …

Whispers From The Islands Preserving And Reinterpreting Caribbean Myths Through Augmented Narratives, Tatyanna Gay

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the role of design as a contemporary medium for preserving, reinterpreting, and disseminating Caribbean cultural myths through visual storytelling. Focusing on using Augmented Reality (AR) and paper sculpture, this research examines how immersive technologies can bridge the gap between oral traditions and digital innovation to safeguard intangible heritage. Centering Caribbean folklore, specifically myths such as the Chickcharney, the Lusca, and the La Diablesse, this work analyzes these stories' historical, symbolic, and social functions within Caribbean identity formation and collective memories.

Drawing on interdisciplinary frameworks from mythology studies, design history, and visual culture, the project investigates how AR …

The Interaction Of Temporal And Structural Abstractions And Their Influence On Behavior, Ryan Gallagher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a crucial role in complex behaviors such as planning, decision-making, and adaptive problem-solving, which require integrating new information over time. Research has shown that information related to these behaviors is organized along a hierarchical rostro-caudal abstraction gradient in PFC, with abstract information represented in rostral (anterior) regions and concrete relationships in caudal (posterior) regions. Abstraction involves generalizing information by emphasizing broader concepts over specific details and can be understood more specifically by the context its applied to. However, past studies often confound different forms of abstraction, making it unclear how these different types of abstraction …